Mass Effect Duality - Mission Failed
by Lachdannen
Summary: After Rhiannon Shepard is badly injured just before the mission to Ilos, the Normandy is unwisely delayed. The crew gather to protect one of their own, even as events proceed without them. Rhia wakes in the hospital...Monthly Writing Competition Entry for Aria's Afterlife October Contest. (Something Scary this way comes...)
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N: _**_So, this is my entry for the October Competition for Aria's Afterlife Monthly Writing Contest. This is on non-cannon for Duality, though it's based off the character there-in. Hope you all enjoy this, as much as you can. Not going to lie, by the time I was done writing this, I felt a bit ill at what I had done to them all. _

* * *

The report of a small caliber weapon tore through the silence that surrounded Rhia Shepard's mind.

Her eyes snapped open, pain slowly helping to pull her from the dark of unconsciousness back into the light. She took a breath, and then another, each just as agonizing as the first as she tried to look toward the sound. Or was it sounds?

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

_Why am I hooked to a heart monitor._ She blinked at it, starting to put her surroundings together, as the room slowly came back into focus. The gunshot had been part of dream?

_Right. Dreaming about gunfire. That's actually on par for you._

The stark white and baby blue room around her was sterile and clean. Aside from the the blue tone of the paint on the lower half of the wall, there were no decorations in the room at all. The monitor next to her beeped it's slow rhythm in time with her heart. She tried to sit up, but room spun. Pain causing her vision, and she let out a soft whimper as she sank back onto her pillows.

She reached for the call button. Every bed hospital had a call button for a nurse, right?

No call button. Where was the call button? _There._

The button hung at the end of it's cord, swinging from where it had fallen out of reach. At least unless she sat up. _That sounds like a terrible plan Rhia… terrible. But...what else am I supposed to do. I don't even know where I am, let alone what happened to me._

Rhia grimaced, bracing herself against the pain and weakness and inched forward, forcing her body to twist until her fingers could feel the edge of the cord that held the button. She drew it to her, every motion no matter how small eliciting aches and pains.

_What the hell did I do, get frisky with a krogan?_

She finally managed to get her hand on the call button. From down the hall, she heard a tone.. She laid back, waiting for a nurse or someone to show up

_Hopefully whoever shows up can tell me what happened. God, if they aren't already, Garrus and John are going to be angry. Wonder who will shout longer. Probably John. Garrus is just a big softy underneath. If it was Kaidan..._

She closed her eyes against the memory of Virmire. It was still too soon. Still too raw. To lose them both like that, Ashley and Kaidan in the fiery blast from the drive core turned nuclear warhead, will always haunt her.

She shoved the memory and pain it brought down, and started trying to take stock of her injuries.

"Okay. Rib, definately..." She touched her side and tried to jerk back. " Legs are fine, just sore...arm...ow." She looked down at her left arm and hand. The whole thing was wrapped in bandages, and she could feel the soothing effects of a pain killer at work. "Right...that's probably bad..."

She paused suddenly wondering just how long it had been. Surely someone should have been by to check on her by now. She fumbled with the button a second time, her hand still not quite doing what she wanted it to. Distantly, she heard the tone again.

"Right...so I'm near the station. Have to be...so where are they?" She turned her head, looking around. If it was a night shift, it was feasible that they were not at the desk and with someone else right now, but the room had no windows, no way of telling what time it was.

"Alone. In a hospital. I'm a damn zombie horror vid or something . . ." Rhia muttered to herself. She looked at her legs, then at the floor, and sighed. "Oh, this is an even worse plan..."

With her good hand, she started disconnecting the wires linking her to the monitors before slowly twisting to put her feet on the floor. A slow groan of pain slipped from her clenched teeth as she did, and another when she jerked her foot back from the ice-cold floor, and reflexively jerked back

"Ow...Christ. What happened to me..."

No one answered her.

"Right. I'm talking to myself. This is a great measure of my sanity," Rhia muttered as she forced both of her feet down, refusing to jerk away from the frigid floor, and pulled herself up, bracing against the bed as she did. A wave of nausea rolled through her and she fought down the urge to vomit.

"Right . . . slow. Very, very slow."

She staggered forward, a severe feeling of deja vu flickering across her memory, promptly replaced by a sobering thought that Ashley wouldn't be there to bail her out this time. She staggered to the doorway, chattering to herself.

"Please no gunmen. I'm not in the mood for gunmen. Not in the mood for thugs of any kin-" Her voice caught in her throat as she looked down at the scene in the hall in front of her.

Rhia slid down the wall next to the still form just outside and to the right of the door, holding onto it for balance. "No… god...no this isn't real. It can't be real."

_Garrus..._

The turian C-Sec officer lay against the wall in a pool of sticky blue blood, that looked black in the half lit halls. His pistol clenched in a death grip showed he had obviously gone down fighting, as did the blood splatter and holes on the wall across from him, but the other had either walked or been dragged away. Garrus had gotten the worst of the deal though, and his eyes stared straight ahead, glassed over in death.

She turned her head away for a second, fighting the urge to throw up for the second in just minutes, before boxing away the part of her mind that was gibbering incoherently, and forced herself to examine what had happened to her friend.

A pair of dark holes had punched through his armor, one about where his heart would be, one several inches farther down, probably through a lung. She took in the details with a detached sense of calm, even while part of her mind screamed in horror. She looked at the gun, then back to the wall he faced. A splatter of blue blood coated part of it. Garrus died to protect her, and took a chunk out of the other turian in the processes.

She pried the pistol from his hand, a tear trickling down her cheek as she did. She wiped it away. Not the time. Someone had to pay first, and they should be nearby. Rhia pulled herself up, and started down the hallway.

Another form sprawled in a perpendicular hallway at the first intersection she came to: one of the nurses on this floor, probably the one that was supposed to have answered the call button. Someone had broken her neck, probably before she even knew she was in danger.

Rhia shivered and looked back and forth down the halls, but the only one moving was her. The hospital seemed empty.

_Like an open grave..._

Rhia shoved that thought away as fast as she could. Garrus was already gone. The others...the others. A chill settled over her. If Garrus had been here, the others wouldn't be far. They were a little family. They watched out for each other.

_Garrus...oh god, Garrus you died to protect me...I never asked for that._

She shivered, the darkness of the hospital even more oppressive than it was before, crushing down on her soul, making every step she took feel as if she was walking through mud.

She made it to the main lobby, looking around. No receptionist. The room was large, opening up to the other floors above her, and she finally had an idea where she was as she looked out the window, and could see the gentle curve of the Citadel's Presidium.

"Right. Citadel. That's fine. Lot of people on the Citadel, C-Sec and what not. Lots of help. Just need to find a terminal. Receptionists have terminals." She turned, and started hobbling towards the main desk. She had covered about two thirds of the distance when she heard a choking scream from above.

She jerked the gun up, pointing just in time to see see a dark colored figure shove an asari wearing white over the railing. The Asari screamed, a choked sound as she fell, clawing at her neck and the cord wrapped around it. Rhia could only watch in horror as she fell, and the cord, some kind of extension power cable, snapped tight with a thrumming crack that echoed through the room.

The body of the Asari swayed back and forth. It was one thing to face death face to face down the barrel of a weapon. This was different. She looked up, trying to find the dark figure that had murdered her. Had murdered Liara.

_Liara. LIARA!?_

Rhia screamed, a mix of horror and rage and pain all folded into one. The gun in her hand shook as she put her other hand over her mouth, unable to look away from Liara's limp form. The same woman who had been so alive so many times in the weeks they had known each other, from her fascination with the beacon, to the the ruins on Therum that they had met at in the first place. The scientist who had spoken so vibrantly about her school and her passion for learning and knowledge.

Silenced. And somewhere overhead, mocking laughter drifted down to her. The sound sent spikes of fear and anger down to her core.

"Come out you sick bastard! I'll kill you!" She howled. "I'll KILL YOU!"

"I'm counting on you to try..." It called back . She looked around fruitlessly as she tried to find the source. Her memory from Virmire, from the Council Chambers, placing the voice of the turian who they had been set against from the beginning.

"Saren! You son of a bitch, I'll tear you apart!" Fresh tears ran down her face as she looked back at Liara. "You better pray to whatever gods you believe in, that John finds you first, cause I won't make it quick, I swear it!"

"Let you both try. This is just the beginning."


	2. Chapter 2

Rhia wandered the halls, gun in hand, her vision practically blurring red with fury as she searched.

_Saren will die. Saren will die. Saren will die, Saren will die screaming. Just like...NO. Saren will die. _

Foot steps echoed near buy, heavy thump of boots slamming on the floor, and Rhia staggered into an alcove, desperate to determine the direction the sound came from. She froze in place as the boots stopped, and someone sniffed the air.

"Rhi? You damn bouncy pyjack, is that you?"

Rhia blinked at the sound of her own name, said just that way the affectionate pet name dubbed to her by the Normandy's heavy hitter.. "Wrex?'

The massive Krogan battlemaster lowered the shotgun as his expression shifted to one of relief. "You're alive. I knew you would be."

Rhia staggered as she hurried to him, the fury drained out of her in a flood that left her nearly unconscious. She sagged against Wrex tiredly as his arm held her up. "Wrex...god...Liara...Garrus." Rhia shook herself as she forced herself to calm down enough to at least speak. Wrex lowered her to the floor. "They are dead."

"We saw Liara. John about went berserk to the point of putting a bloodrage to shame." Wrex said as he looked left and right. "I...didn't know about Garrus. "

"Saren shot him."

Wrex teeth barred into a rictus of snarl as his unholy hatred for the turian spectre took hold. "Saren's here?"

She could only nod for a moment as she gathered herself. "I heard him... I...I saw Liara die, and I heard him. He's here somewhere."

Wrex slammed one hand into the wall in frustration, leaving a sizable dent in the shape of a krogan fist. "John and Tali are here. He was taking her down to one of the other terminals near the main servers, see if she could unlock the doors, communications, something. Everything was locked out. We can't even get the lights up."

Rhia nodded. "I...I didn't try. I wasn't...thinking clearly."

"Those pirates did a number on you. When we didn't find a receptionist, and didn't find you in your room, we assumed you wandered off." Wrex said.

"Wrex, Garrus was just outside of my room. How did you not know...what happened."

The Krogan growled. "He must have moved him. We saw the blood, but no body. We assumed that...what does Joker call him, 'Stick-up-his-ass' was hurt but alive." Wrex paused. "Saren is going to wish he started with me when I'm done with him. I'll peels his damn mandibles from his head."

"Where are John and Tali?"

"Server room. Somewhere on the second level according to her."

"Help me up. Lets just...lets just find them and get out of here." Rhia felt a cold knot of fear slip into her stomach.

_What the hell had I been thinking? Going after him alone? He could have picked me off any time he wanted. I mean..._

_"_Wrex, we need to get to them. Right now. Saren's playing us, again." She tried and failed to keep the note of panic from her voice as she raced through the train of logic. _Isolate. Terrorize. Anger to the point of making mistakes. I was playing right into him. _

The battlemaster growled as he helped her to her feet, wary now as he looked around, eyeing their surroundings. "Alright, this way. He's got all the comms jammed in here too. Tali wasn't happy about that either. Something about testing her patience."

They started down the hall, Wrex still talking as they did. "We were taking shifts keeping an eye on you, though honestly none of us had slept. Not a problem for me yet, but the others needed a boost. Hospital didn't have anything sterile for Tali on hand, so we went out. Garrus and Liara stayed. I think she was blaming herself for you getting hurt. No idea why though."

Rhia frowned, trying to remember. "I don't actually remember getting injured." She peeked down the corridor before they stepped out into it, still holding onto Wrex's armored shoulder for support. The krogan grunted.

"Huh. Was a pirate attack on a colony. I was on the wrong side of things, didn't see what happened. I just you know you went diving in like you normally do, five minutes later John was carrying your scrawny butt back to the shuttle. Something about a firebomb, or flamethrower, or something."

He kept walking, leading her up to the next level by way of the stairs. Rhia struggled to pull herself up them, and to her embarrassment, Wrex stopped every few steps to give her time to keep up.. "You're worse off than I thought. How did you get this far even?"

"You know me…." She panted, pain throbbing in her arm as the pain meds started to fail. ". . . I tend to go against doctor's orders. Remember Chora's Den?"

"And you running off to save Tali? Yeah, Chakwas was so pissed at you, she threatened to drug you until we reached Therum."

Rhia trailed behind him as they started to cross down one hall, the entire space on the right side a single window. She glanced at it, eying the view of the Citadel Wards. "Where are we?"

"Shalta Ward. Was the closest hospital we could get you to after docke," Wrex answered. He looked around, a edge of wariness entering his posture.

Rhia stopped, looking around. "What. What is it?"

"He was here. I can still smell him. He's close." The battlemaster answered, his shotgun held in both hands as she turned and surveyed the hall.

Rhia spun a new voice, a voice she knew and hated, sent a chill down her spine ."I am, krogan. Good bye." She caught a glimpse of him, a flash of blue eyes, dull grey armor, dark grey face plates. The gun in her hand trembled as she sighted on him, and she pulled the trigger.

The window next to her exploded in a hail of crystalline shards, raining in, before the explosion reversed and with a howl, the vacuum of space sucked the shards of glass, the fire from the explosion, and everything else in reach towards the now gaping window. Rhia screamed as the wind ripped her from her feet, and she tumbled toward the opening, a hungry maw of glass, fire and void.

She slammed into guardrail, her good hand latching onto the cold metal, and her vision spun for a moment as she tried tell up from down, and failed, fear lurching through her and stealing the air from her lungs, as everything nearby was ripped out into space. Something slashed past her, and she jerked her head away from the searing pain.

A second later, the emergency barriers snapped into place and Rhia slumped to the floor, panting with exertion as she tried to rise.

"Wrex, gimme a hand here." Rhia said as the pain in her arm reached a new level of agony. Silence answered her. A dull fear ached in her, and she looked around. "Wrex? Where are you Wrex, this isn't…" She turned to the right, where the energy from the emergency barriers hummed and crackled.

"No! God damn it, no!"

He was gone. Analytically she knew that. By the time anyone could be contacted and get to him, the rugged battlemaster would be long dead, even counting the krogan's ability to regenerate. That didn't stop the frantic scramble though, looking for any way to help.

"No, no, no!" Rhia shouted, her voice echoing down the halls, halls that seemed to swallow the sound, choking it out.

"Pity. I thought you would be more of a problem."

Rhia spun in place at the voice, hate, loathing and fear driving her to motion.

Saren Arterius fist slammed into the side of Rhia's face before she could get her arm up to deflect it. Her ears rang from the hit, and the hall seemed to dim for a moment. A second blow connected to her stomach, and she gasped, the air knocked out of her, her lungs on fire.

"I was going to save you for last. Maybe I still will. Stake you out like…..what is the phrase….live bait."

Rhia clenched her fist, lurching forward as she swung, but the ex-spectre caught her hand and hauled her off balance. Rhia hit the floor hard, the breath driven from her lungs for the second time in less than a minute as his knee hit her in the center of her back, and she gasped for breath again, starting to feel the sharp edges of panic hit her.

_I am going to die. Oh god I am going to die. I can't stop him._

"Ms. Shepard….that was far too predictable. I expected more, from you," He said as he made a clicking noise of disgust.

Rhia tried to turn her head, and caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye as his fist came down again. Pain exploded in the back of her head, and then ebbed slowly back to soothing darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

_Rhia woke to a scream. She jerked trying to turn to find it and was hauled up short. Fire exploded through her wrist and arm, and her own shout of agony joined the first. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she looked over at where it had come from_

Her injured wrist, the one that Wrex had said she had burned in the pirate attack, was shackled to the wall she had been laying against, the other end of the metal ring clipped to a piece of railing. No, not a wall, she decided, she was cuffed to safety railing.

She was trapped.

_I'm still alive. I've been in worse. Okay, not much worse, and you had backup before...but hey, who's counting. I mean not like he's still right…._

"Oh, good, you are awake. I confess, I was afraid I had actually damaged you to the point you wouldn't wake in time," Saren's voice mocked. She turned her head, as someone whimpered nearby as well.

_Who is that…._

Rhia's eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light, and as she turned to look at the ex-spectre, she suddenly wished she hadn't, bile rising in her throat as she took in the scene.

Saren had Tali pinned to the floor like a bug. Rhia found herself riveted in a macabre fascination, even as her stomach heaved and rebelled.

The turian had pinned her to the floor with what looked like metal rebar, her legs and arms splayed wide, piercing her hands and feet, before being rammed into the floor with tremendous force. Another four had been thrust through her thighs and upper arms, completely immobilizing the quarian girl. They were on the third floor of the hospital, nearly in the same spot that Saren had hung Liara from.

_And she's just a girl. God, she's so young, no please…._

"I have to confess. I've always been curious what a quarian looks like under that suit. I know so few who have ever had a chance to admire you, and I'm...curious"

Rhia shook her head, confused. She wasn't a quarian, what was….Tali, he was talking to Tali. She tried to focus on the young engineer. Her suit had been breached, not once but 8 times, and that was really, really bad. She had barely survived before, when she had been shot on Feros, but this was different.

_Hold on...god….please let her hold on…_

Saren knelt next to Tali's head, a long curved blade in one hand. Rhia looked away for a moment, forcing her mind to look at the cuff. Metal. Not particularly sturdy, but her hand was swathed in bandages. The pain and burn medication was starting to wear off, as her previous agony had shown, but may she could slip the cuff if she could get the bandages out of the way.

A renewed cry of pain ripped her gaze back to Saren and Tali.

"Let us just see what is hiding under that mask…." Saren said, his mandibles clicking in excitement, the same motion Garrus used to make when talking about guns.

Rhia felt her heart race as he lowered the blade to Tali's mask. "No!"

Saren's gaze shot up and locked on her. "Shut up you, or I'll do ten times worse to her, and you."

"Go fuck yourself," Rhia snapped back, not looking away from his gaze. _Freaky robot gaze...god, what happened to you._

"Perhaps I'll do that to you later, right before I drop you off the top of the Presidium," Saren said mildly. He let his gaze linger a moment, and goosebumps ran up her arms, a chill settling in her already soured stomach.. "I've never been with a human. Would be … enlightening."

"Yeah, you'll never get the chance."

"Empty threats and we both know it. But where was I…."

Rhia bit down, grinding her teeth as she forced herself to watch.

Saren's blade tore a rough gouge in Tali's suit, slicing into her face as he did, and eliciting another cry of pain. How she was even conscious at this point though, Rhia couldn't imagine. Rhia could only watch in mute horror as he continued, slicing the suite away from the mask in shallow little cuts, each leaving a slash in Tali, before finally prying the mask free from her with a little wet tearing sound.

Saren mada click of disapproval. "My, my … someone seems to be all cut up….shame. You used to be beautiful, I would say."

Rhia looked away, though she could hear the blade come down. Tali made a final wet gurgling sound and then went silent.

"Now….Ms. Shepard….."

Saren wiped the blade clean on Tali's mask, using the shreds of the suit edge.

Rhia jerked at the cuff, looking down at it, and back up at Saren, her heart thumping in her chest like a the beat of a massive drum, fear only amplifying the rhythm as he walked calmly toward her.

_No...not like this. No no no._

Rhia thrust out one hand, moving in a motion that she had practiced so many times that it was reflex. Her muscles contracted and her biotics flickered to life for a moment.

A lightning bolt shot from the base of her neck to her brain, and then down, tearing through her like liquid agony. She screamed until she was hoarse, slumping so far down that her cuffed wrist was the only thing holding her up.

Saren watched her, amused.

"Did you know, that with a few minor tweaks to an individuals biotic amp, it is not only rendered inoperative, but actually channels pain directly to the subjects brain?" He grinned at her and started to advance again and Rhia's heart leapt into her throat.

A shadow appeared behind the turian spectre and hope sprang to life in her for a moment. Saren paused, staring at her and trying to rapidly decipher the meaning to her expression.

It was all the time that John needed to wrap his hands around Saren's throat. John Michael Shepard, N7 operative and infiltration specialist, snaked his elbow under Saren's neck and hauled back, nearly jerking the other man from his feet. Rhia jerked at the cuff again in frustration and forced herself to turn away from the struggle, working and slipping out of the bandages, trying to wiggle her way to freedom.

Her skin tore and pain shot through so vivid and raw that it made her gasp and see spots. The raw, burned flesh took her pain from a nice solid five on a ten point scale, to something closer to fifteen, but her hand came free.

She looked up just in time to see Saren snarl and back over the side, carrying John with him, both screaming all the way down.

_Three stories...oh god…._

She forced herself up, to look down the nearly 30 meter drop to the lobby below. Raw pain and fear slashed through her, tearing at her soul.

_Or what is left of it…_

She turned and ran for the stairs, nearly falling in her haste.

It took her far too long to get to the lobby, but neither were moving by the time she did. But Saren was alive. His eyes were wide, roving around the room. Inhuman eyes.

Rhia hefted the piece of rebar she had pulled from the pile the spectre had kept on the third floor, staring down at his cybernetic eyes. Blue blood scattered around the him, reminding Rhia of a melon that had been dropped.

"This is too good for you, you bastard," she said as she hefted her improvised weapon. Hatred seared through her, pure and vicious. Rhia took a step closer swung the rebar down in a awkward two-handed grip.

And then did it again. And again. Tears blurred her vision, worse with every stroke.

_For Garrus. For Liara. For Ashley. For Kaidan. For Wrex. For Tali. For John._

As the last name burned across her mind she let go, the metal bar tumbling from her grasp, turning to the other figure on the ground.

John had died the moment he hit the floor, and Rhia knelt, cradling his head in her lap, and let the tears run.

_Over. It's over. _

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_**A/N: **Right, so horror writing is so not my thing. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this, and don't hate me too much. A huge shout out to Mizdirected for being the one to suffer both through my grammatical horror story, as well as the actual horror story itself. _


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